Protecting the Public from H1N1 through Points of Dispensing (PODs)

Abstract

In fall 2009, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) operated 58 points of dispensing (PODs) over 5 weekends to provide influenza A (H1N1) 2009 monovalent vaccination to New Yorkers. Up to 7 sites were opened each day across the 5 boroughs, with almost 50,000 New Yorkers being vaccinated. The policies and protocols used were based on those developed for New York City's POD Plan, the cornerstone of the city's mass prophylaxis planning. Before the H1N1 experience, NYC had not opened more than 5 PODs simultaneously and had only experienced the higher patient volume seen with the H1N1 PODs on 1 prior occasion. Therefore, DOHMH identified factors that contributed to the success of POD operations, as well as areas for improvement to inform future mass prophylaxis planning and response. Though this was a relatively small-scale, preplanned operation, during which a maximum of 7 PODs were operated on a given day, the findings have implications for larger-scale mass prophylaxis planning for emergencies.

Cost Comparison of 2 Mass Vaccination Campaigns Against Influenza A H1N1 in New York City

“…This campaign is described in detail elsewhere. 7 We obtained vaccination data for the school campaign from New York City's populationbased Citywide Immunization Registry, a central electronic system for tracking the immunizations of individual children aged up to 19 years. 8,9 All providers in New York City are required by law to participate in Citywide Immunization Registry (New York City Health Code, section 11.04).…”

Are US Jurisdictions Prepared to Dispense Medical Countermeasures Through Open Points of Dispensing? Findings from a National Study

“…POD exercises are vital to ensure that mass dispensing of MCMs can be accomplished within expected timelines. 16 An interesting finding from this study is that jurisdictions participating in more POD exercises had higher POD preparedness scores compared to jurisdictions conducting fewer exercises. This provides evidence that POD exercises are associated with higher confidence of successful POD deployment.…”

“…11,12 POD exercises have been used to assess patient satisfaction, 13 efficiency of using a head-of-household distribution method, 2 and patient understanding of POD signage and medication instructions. 14 Researchers have also used deployment during real events to assess POD preparedness, [15][16][17][18] including the use of PODs for mass dispensing during smaller outbreaks 18 and cost-effective approaches to mass dispensing. 17 Despite this research and the TAR assessments, little is known about many aspects of CRI POD preparedness beyond the TAR standards or POD preparedness among non-CRI jurisdictions that are not assessed by the TAR.…”

Vaccination against influenza: role and limitations in pandemic intervention plans

“…Mass vaccination works most effectively in communities in which emergency managers use incident command and emergency operations structures, having existing mass vaccination plans, have collaborated with other response agencies within the community during a past disaster, and track vaccination using their jurisdiction's immunization information system [65]. Lessons learned from mass vaccination during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic include the need for more upfront integration of security into points of distribution (PODs) and that POD staff training needs to be improved [66]. An enormous challenge reported during mass vaccination of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic vaccine was that information regarding vaccine availability changed frequently [64].…”